Joe Gibbs and Al Saunders Speak About Camp

Site Staff

05/06/2007

Here is what Joe Gibbs and Al Saunders had to say:

Head Coach Joe Gibbs

On the rookie camp weekend:

"I told the group that I really appreciated their attitude and work ethic. It is the best group I have been around during rookie camp. What we are going to do now is meet upstairs and make some decisions. Some things you can do now and some things will have to wait a week. Everyone worked extremely hard and it was good work for everyone."

"Normally, we release some guys the very first day because we are worried that they would be totally out of it. We didn't release anyone so it was a good group. Hopefully, we found some guys to bring into camp."

On how tough the decisions will be to decide who stays and who goes:

"It is always tough because a lot of the guys have given a lot and played all those years. You hate to see it come to an end for them. They have dreams. A lot of us dreamed about playing pro ball and some of us were not good enough. It is a tough time."

On what type of progress he was looking for these guys to make over this mini camp weekend:

"For the draft choices, it is more about the playbook and seeing how they progress with that. For the other guys it was more an individual and physical thing, how fast they pick things up and what the coaches thought. We had a meeting yesterday after practice and highlighted some guys and we are going to go up and finish it off."

Associate Head Coach-Offense Al Saunders

On running back Derrick Blaylock:

"I am familiar with him he was a very productive player from his days in Kansas City and then through the wonderful world of free agency he ended up with the Jets. This is a nice opportunity for him to come in to an offense that he is familiar with and he is a very competitive guy and a very reliable player so hopefully he will come in and sign with us and show us what he can do."

On the progress of the players during mini-camp:

"For those young guys it's tough. They are learning a new language. They are running all over the place. We got a quarterback that only ran the option in college. We have some receivers and offense lineman that have never done what we have done. They are a great group of kids and I am sure coach [Joe Gibbs] would reiterate this is the best group of rookies we have ever had. The total number of guys we have with us is still up to conjecture. It was a real good group and they worked hard and I think they had a real good experience and we had a lot of fun with them."

On how the quarterbacks performed during mini-camp:

"They did real well. All three of them came from a totally different system. You got to kind of relearn everything you have been taught. They have been in the same system for the last six to seven years. Jordan Palmer did a nice job. He certainly has the skills. That is why we drafted him. He is a guy we look at developing for down the road. Sam Hollenbach did a real nice job we got him over here from Maryland. He was very accurate with his throws. He has a real long way to go with his development too, but it was nice to see him out here. Our other quarterback [Jonathan Wilson] from VMI did a real good job too."

"He has been like my son. Every time I look over my shoulder he is here in the offseason. He is making progress. He is a wonderful kid to work with he is extremely bright and he has worked extremely hard on his techniques and fundamentals, which is the only two things you can do in the offseason like this is a lot of film work and a lot of board work a lot of understanding of what we are doing from a schematic stand point and then getting back on the field and working on the fundamentals and techniques."